So does the UK; mainly because of couriers. There's the time you need a package to arrive, the time you want a package to arrive, the time the courier says it will arrive, and the quantum uncertainty of when it will actually arrive... the biggest problem here is that you can know when it is or where it is, but never both.
Well, i didnt learn about it today... But last week. Today, i just remembered it because im digitizing it.... Night Doctors. Doctors who would go prowling the night for African Americans to kidnap and experiment on. When i visited home last week, my aunt said she found a bunch of old cassette tapes, so we listened to one. It was of my great grandfather talking to a grad student who was interviewing him. He told her about people who would go missing and the Night Doctors who went into black neighborhoods at night and how police and doctors turned a blind eye to it. I forgot about it until 2 days later, i visited my mother in law and i asked her about stories from her childhood (my mom loves talking about her childhood and showing pictures... I wanted to get to know my MIL better so i asked). She said that her mom always told her to come in before dark because of the Night Doctors. (Im getting that cassette tape turned into an audio file today... So i googled the "Night Doctors" a few mins ago and HOLY CRAP!)
Today I learned about the guillotine haircuts. In the days that followed the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, cropped hair became the style, for both men and women, in imitation of the victims of the guillotine, who had their hair cut off to ensure there were no complications with the blade. This powerful symbol became known as the coiffure à la victime. https://www.transcriptmag.com/post/coiffure-%C3%A0-la-victime-the-urban-legend-of-the-guillotine-haircuts
Most celebrities and athletes are taught not to sign autographs using blue ink cause you can scan and forge the signature on other things and sell them. Colored ink autographs are sold for far more money on eBay, etc. Some celebs don’t want to support a secondary market/exploitation of their brand.
Today i learned about the Washington Race Riot of 1919. (I succeeded in copying the cassette tape to an audiofile and started listening to it. In the interview, my great grandfather talks about being 7 years old during the race riot and hiding in the basement) I went to school in Washington DC and never once learned about this....
On a lighter note, He talks about how back then almost everything was pulled by a horse. He talked about the fire department that had "big horses with big feet. Budweiser horses!" That were so trained that when they heard the bell that signified a fire, they'd run to their harnesses and get in position so that all that needed to be done was to snap them in, then they'd be running
Probably Clydesdales. Those things are massive. We have a few honorary mounted police in the city that use them. I'm always trying to get them to ride through the restaurants but that's against the rules, apparently. BOOOOO!
In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1.
When I was in graduate school, the computer was housed in its own building. Using it involved a system of cards in a box with holes arranged inthe bottoms to allow you to run a skewer though and take out only the cards you wanted. Yeah, vague memories since that was almost fifty years ago and I never bothered to learn to use it. My brother did learn to use it and used to sign up for access in the wee hours of the morning since he was the ultimate night owl.
More than 50 years ago I took a class in FORTRAN, and the semester project was to create as set of cards to program the computer to perform a simple task. My how things have changed.
Computers originated from automated weaving machines that used a string of cards hinged together running through it like a belt. This is fascinating stuff: Programming Patterns: the story of the Jacquard loom
What an interesting article. Thanks, Xoic. I inherited a floor loom when a dear friend died, but do all my weaving on a Navajo loom or small hand looms.
I do all my weaving on the highway home from the tavern. After all I'm in Wisconsin, where third offense drunk driving gets you a stern lecture.
You don't by any chance live in LaCrosse, do you? For whatever reason, according to some of the police bodycam videos I watch, that's a massive hotbed of drunken and disorderly conduct. Especially when it comes to a certain T-Rex named Noah— SCREAMING T-Rex Gets His 15th Arrest! @ Donut Operator It's not just him though, LaCrosse seems to have a high concentration of low-level lawbreakers that keep police extremely busy. Certain areas and certain cities are just like that. Which I find mindblowing, because to me Wisconsin is the really nice, extremely white-bread place we used to go when I was a kid to visit my grandparents on my dad's side. It all seemed so pleasant...
Nope, in Mad-town. My son-in-law is from LaCrosse, and your comment probably explains a lot. Just kidding, I don't think he drinks at all. So I wonder why . . . .
Madison? My grandparents lived in Milwaukee, home of The Beast (Milwaukee's Best). I live in a brewery town myself—we used to have a Stag brewery not far from where I lived. I just checked and apparently it was demolished in 1996. Man, if you had to drive past that place the smell would just about kill you! Like rancid beer. I don't know how anybody could work there.
Today I learned that the fastest horses can reach up to 50 mph (~80 km/hr) and the steam locomotives of yesteryear averaged about 30-60 mph (50-100 km/hr). The occasion of my looking that up was the photo below, taken on the 16th August 1938: A member of the Berkhampstead Riding School tests her riding prowess against the Carlisle Express in a field that adjoins the LMS railway at Tring, Hertfordshire. It's a famous photo, entitled Steamy Steed, and one can order prints of it - https://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-steamy-steed-fox-photos.html?product=art-print In 2021, after years of planning and multiple cancellations, photographers Jack Boskett managed to recreate the 1938 picture, of a horse galloping alongside a steam engine, in the Cotswolds. https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/one-chance-only-rider-and-photographer-nail-recreation-of-1930s-steam-train-picture-764739
At least the second one is leaning forward and lifted up a bit. That makes it look fast. The first one seems to be asleep in the saddle.
